—Or Reorganisation

—MO February 18, 1975 NO328C—LT

Copyrighted February‚ 1975 by The Children of God P. O. Box 31, London WC2E 7LX England or GPO Box 3141, San Juan‚ Puerto Rico 00936

SELF-GOVERNMENT VS. OLD-BOTTLE DICTATORS!

Dear Family:

Greetings in Jesus' Precious Name!

1. Thank you so much for all your precious Birthday reminders, cards‚ gifts, etc. The best gift that you've all given me is your love and your confidence in the Lord and His Words, as those the obey them have found that God never fails to do His part, but those who ignore them have had nothing but trouble and caused us heartache.

2. THANK GOD MOST OF YOU HAVE FAITHFULLY FOLLOWED THE LORD AND HIS LETTERS and this is why we are still exploding around the world.

3. BUT IN SPITE OF MANY DECLARATIONS OF INDEPENDENCE TO ENCOURAGE YOU TO BE MORE INDIGENOUS, WE STILL HAVE A FEW OLD BOTTLES AROUND WHO TRY TO EXERCISE TOO MUCH CONTROL FROM THE TOP instead of inspiring more initiative from the bottom. Some of these old bottle groups have had big organizational meetings recently in which they're been trying to figure out how to run the world without even asking for my suggestions.

4. THEY ARE CONTINUING ALL THINGS AS BEFORE AS THOUGH THEY HAD NEVER EVEN READ THE MULTITUDE OF LETTERS WE HAVE WRITTEN ON BREAKING UP THE BLOBS, decentralising control, diversifying operations and trying to encourage greater independence for local Colonies, local projects, local pubs, local child-care, local music, local government‚ local PR, local mail ministry as well as local distribution and self support etc.

5. THERE WAS A TIME IN OUR EARLY HISTORY WHEN YOU WERE NEARLY ALL BABES THAT YOU NEEDED STRONG PARENTAL CONTROL, support, protection, indoctrination and direction, etc. But now you have grown into self-supporting, self-sufficient and strong pioneering parents and leaders yourselves with your own jobs to do in your own countries and your own Colonies and Regions.

6. NOW WE HAVE TRIED TO LET YOU GO AND SEND YOU FORTH ON YOUR OWN with our prayers, best wishes, encouragement and inspiration to do the job on your own without too much help from Mama and Papa at home except our continued general counsel, advice and information from the Lord on general directions, all to be found in the Lord's Letters.

7. WE HAVE ONLY BEGGED YOU TO WRITE HOME TO US AND LET US KNOW HOW YOU'RE DOING and to ask any questions you have regarding problems you may need help on and to report faithfully the good news‚ scores and victories of your work so that we may share them with the whole Family worldwide for the encouragement of all and continued fellowship in the Spirit.

8. BUT SOME OF OUR OLD BOTTLE LEADERSHIP ARE STILL TRYING TO ACT LIKE THE PARENTS OF LITTLE CHILDREN like so many selfish parents with which we're all too familiar and who have frequently caused us so much trouble! They're still treating you like the little babes you used to be instead of the grown up adults, leaders and pioneers and founders of whole countries and Colonies and new Heavenly Homes in far flung fields far from home and the mamas and papas you used to have, including us!

9. YOU ARE NOW WELL ABLE TO STAND ON YOUR OWN TWO FEET, pioneer your own field‚ reap your own harvests, build your own homes, conduct your own business, support yourselves, produce your own products and raise your own children without much help or advice from us‚ and certainly little or no control!

10. YOU ONLY NEED GUIDANCE TO REMAIN ON THE RIGHT TRACK, going in the right direction and continuing in your Apostles' Doctrine and Family fellowship so that we continue in the unity of the Spirit and all speak the same thing and head toward the same goal—world conquest through God's love!

11. FRANKLY, I THINK THAT OUR LETTERS FROM HOME ARE ABOUT ALL YOU NEED for this now‚ a little Godly counsel and wisdom from the Lord through Papa and Mama, a few suggestions on how to do it better and an occasional admonishment for your mistakes and how to correct them.

12. BUT WE CERTAINLY DO NOT APPROVE OF THE DICTATORIAL CONTROL that some of your former old-bottle mamas and papas are still trying to exercise over you when you are now grown up, married and have homes and children of your own and are well able to conduct your own work without any domineering orders from us!

13. AS I HAVE SAID BEFORE, IN FACT, EVEN AS FAR BACK AS "FOLLOW GOD", ONE OF THE VERY FIRST AND ORIGINAL MO LETTERS, "FOR GOD'S SAKE, FOLLOW GOD!" You know your field, your work, your people and your situation and problems far better than we do, are much closer to them than we are and much better able to handle them than we can possibly be, and most of you now have had years of training and experience in leadership and tried-and-proven ability to handle your own affairs without dictation from us!

14. I THINK SOMETIMES MAMAS AND PAPAS STILL TRY TO INSIST ON ORDERING THEIR GROWN CHILDREN AROUND long after they're on their own, just by force of habit after so many years of telling you what to do when you were mere babes and didn't know what to do!

15. I THINK SOMETIMES, TOO‚ THAT AFTER THEIR CHILDREN ARE GROWN AND ON THEIR OWN THAT THEIR FORMER PARENTS SOMETIMES FEEL A LITTLE LEFT OUT and out of a job and no longer necessary and are fearful of having nothing more to do with your rearing and therefore begin to feel somewhat useless and not needed.

16. SO THEY TRY TO FIGURE OUT WAYS IN WHICH THEY CAN FORCE THEIR HELP ON YOU and make you more dependent on them so they won't lose control of you entirely and the privilege of telling you what to do which they enjoyed unhindered for so many years and their authority over you which they counted their right for so long while you were young and really were dependent on them.

17. THEY GOT SO USED TO BEING DICTATORS IT'S A LITTLE HARD FOR THEM TO GET OVER and it's also a little hard and embarrassing for some of them to admit to either themselves or others that you are now an improvement on the stock and are doing even better than they did because they are has-beens!

18. THEY HAD THEIR TIME OF USEFULNESS WHEN YOU DESPERATELY NEEDED THEM to mother you and nurture you in the Lord, to feed and rock you and comfort you, to dress and train you and guide you and to change and clean you and wash you and bring you up in the way you should go.

19. BUT NOW THAT YOU ARE OLDER THE PARENTS SHOULD HAVE THE FAITH THAT YOU "SHALL NOT DEPART THEREFROM", from that good and right way they taught you to follow, except when you ask for their advice or really need their help with problems you can't handle and actually seek their assistance.

20. THEY SHOULD LET YOU GO YOUR OWN WAY as long as you're behaving yourselves, taking good care of your homes and families and bearing good fruit in good children and supporting and caring for them well‚ as they once did for you.

21. THE PARENTS SHOULD NO LONGER HAVE TO INTERFERE except in the most extreme cases of real mistreatment or child neglect or unless their own children themselves have become unfit parents. We grandmothers and grandfathers of the faith have really no more right than to scold you for your mistakes and misdeeds and still cannot force you to do as we please except for calling in the law of the judgments of God upon you if you don't correct them!

22. I WOULD SUGGEST THAT SOME OF THE BLAME FOR THIS CONTINUING DICTATORSHIP OF SOME OF OUR TOP LEADERS IS THE FAULT OF SOME OF YOU CHILDREN YOURSELVES because you have encouraged it by either continuing to be babies and needing it or being afraid to speak up and refuse it when you don't need it!

23. I HAVE RECENTLY BEEN AMAZED AT HOW THE GROWN HEADS OF WHOLE COUNTRIES AND REGIONS LITERALLY TREMBLE WITH FEAR at the mere look or word of one of their former mamas or papas and forget that they are no longer children but grown leaders in their own right, well able to rule their own affairs instead of still being dictated to!

24. YOU ARE PERMITTING YOURSELVES TO BE DICTATED TO BY SOME OLD-BOTTLE LEADER of the past whose ministry you no longer need and whose dictation you can well do without and do much better on your own!

25. I'VE RECENTLY HEARD OF A NUMBER OF INSTANCES IN WHICH TOP INTERNATIONAL LEADERS HAVE INTERFERED IN STRICTLY LOCAL AFFAIRS to the actual hindering of the work! I would suggest to some of you reliable leaders, particularly of whole regions and countries and continents, that:

26. IT'S TIME FOR YOU TO GROW UP AND SOMETIMES TELL MOM AND DAD OFF and tell 'em to go home and mind their own business and that you're well able to manage your own affairs without any of their meddling interference!

27. IF YOU NEED A LITTLE EXTRA AUTHORITY TO DO SO, TAKE IT FROM MY LETTERS! Why don't you have the guts to just stand up and speak up for your rights and simply say, "I'm sorry‚ but that's not the way MO or the Lord or the Bible told us to do it!"

28. IF YOU KNOW GOD'S WORD AND THE MO LETTERS WELL ENOUGH as you should as real leaders, you should be able to quote some of these old bottle dictators chapter and verse to authenticate your challenge to their authority!

WARNS THE RF!

29. AS I MYSELF HAVE OFTEN SAID, WE ARE A FREE SOCIETY OF GOD'S FREE NATION under His leadership, a spiritual fellowship and not a dictatorship, so that even I myself cannot force you local leaders to do as I say, but can only plead with you to try to follow the guidance that the Lord has given me in the Letters if you want to stay out of trouble and deliver the goods!

30. EVEN I DO NOT TRY TO INTERFERE WITH YOUR LOCAL AFFAIRS, feeling you can best handle those yourselves. I even try not to interfere with the operations business and housing of my own Department of Publications or the International Office of which I am also head. But I turn this work over to local leaders who know the situation better than I and who should be much better able to conduct their own affairs unless they fail!

31. IN A CASE OF SERIOUS FAILURES OR MISTAKES I SOMETIMES HAVE TO STEP IN and correct them and give a few orders where they themselves have failed to do so. But I usually let them run their own affairs as they see best with as little interference from me as possible.

32. HOWEVER, WHEN I HAVE GIVEN THEM SO MUCH FREEDOM and forgiven them for so much and then they turn around like the unjust Steward and begin to beat you unmercifully and try to arbitrarily dictate and run your affairs contrary to my own Letters and instructions from the Lord, then I become absolutely furious and the fur flies and the heads roll!

33. I HAVE NOT SPARED MY OWN FLESH AND BLOOD in such cases but have often exposed them publicly to you for their misdeeds rebuking them before all, chastening them and scourging them as a father in true loving concern for their own welfare and yours, giving them the correction that they so sorely need for your sake and their sake.

34. I HAVE DEMOTED THEM ON OCCASION TO SOME OTHER JOB OR BANISHED THEM to some other area until they have learned their lessons and have tried to prove that they can learn to obey the Lord and His Letters.

35. I WILL NOT HESITATE TO DO SO NOW AGAIN if they persist in continuing in frequent and constant contradictions of my Letters in their dictatorial orders to you.

THE VOLUNTARY CHAIN OF COOPERATION: —HOW IT SHOULD BE WORKING!

36. IT HAS BEEN OVER TWO YEARS NOW SINCE WE TRIED TO HELP YOU GET ORGANISED into a practical form of cooperative fellowship which we believe is Scriptural and inspired by the Lord for the better supervision and operation of the local colonies, as well as our international cooperation, fellowship and exchange of ideas reporting, publications of news, etc.

37. ALL THIS ORIGINAL PLAN HAD TO BE LAID OUT FROM THE TOP as I received if from the Lord. Its primary purpose was to then begin to shift the principle power base from top level authoritarianism to greater grass roots freedom and democracy, with the initiative in tending tables to be handled primarily at the local level, with only general directions from above through the Lord's Letters and not dictators at the top!

38. UPPER OFFICERS WERE MERELY TO SUPERVISE advise‚ counsel, check, express their opinions and their feelings of approval or disapproval and work together with you in agreement and cooperation as much as possible in every new plan or project, move or question.

39. THE ORIGINAL LEADERS OF OUR NATION OF GOD'S KINGDOM HAD TO BE APPOINTED FROM THE TOP by the King himself with the consensus and consultation of his Council of Ministers. The general structuring was to be the Biblical appointment of six or seven major leaders as Bishops or overseers of the various areas in which we were already working and had Colonies, as well as some of those which were soon to be pioneered.

40. THESE BISHOPS IN TURN WERE TO DIVIDE THEIR BISHOPRICS AS NECESSARY INTO REGIONS and appoint over them Regional Shepherds from amongst their own leaders. The Regional Shepherds were then in turn to choose District Shepherds who would appoint the local Shepherds of each Colony until such time as each of these would be better able to govern themselves.

41. I SUGGESTED TO THE HORROR OF SOME LONG AGO THAT THE LOCAL COLONIES SHOULD CHOOSE THEIR OWN SHEPHERDS when they are old enough and experienced enough and sufficiently established in the Lord and the work to do so. In other words when the children had grown up they should be fit and trusted to govern themselves.

42. SO THAT BY NOW THE WAY OUR PLAN OF ORGANISATION SHOULD BE WORKING IS THAT MORE INITIATIVE SHOULD BE ORIGINATING AT THE ROOTS and flowing with the "Sap of God's Inspiration" of His Holy Spirit upward throughout all branches of our government with a plan of checks and balances which would act as safety checks on everyone's actions in every area so that all might work together in agreement and with common consent and mutual approval.

43. NOW THAT THIS GOVERNMENT HAS BEEN ESTABLISHED and you are old enough to take care of yourselves the structure of the Lord's Kingdom should be working like this:

44. EACH LOCAL COLONY SHOULD BE CHOOSING ITS OWN LOCAL SHEPHERD or spiritual Elder and agreeing together on the selection of its own local Deacons or those who handle its practical affairs. Its choice of a local Shepherd, for safety's sake and mutual cooperation and agreement should then be submitted to their District Shepherd for the approval of the District Council composed of all the local Colony Shepherds of that District. Normally there should be no objection since this was the local Colony's choice and the District Council's approval would be almost a formality.

45. HOWEVER, IF THE DISTRICT COUNCIL DID HAVE ANY STRONG OBJECTION to the local Colony's choice of a shepherd for any special or unusual reason, this would then be discussed by the District Council with the officials of the Colony until agreement could be reached on a selection, or at least agreement to try their selection on probation or if necessary an agreement together on an alternative shepherd.

46. THE DISTRICT SHEPHERD AND HIS DISTRICT COUNCIL of the other Local Shepherds of the District are in no wise to interfere in the internal affairs of a Local Colony unless called upon to do so by the Colony itself in asking for help or if the Local Colony is obviously seriously going astray or needs help.

47. IN THE CASE OF THE DEPARTURE ON A LOCAL COLONY SHEPHERD in which the Local Colony officials feel they themselves have no one capable of taking his place, they could request a suggestion of leadership from their District Shepherd and his District Council for a possible appointment of someone else whom they deem fit‚ subject to the Local Colony's approval.

48. WHICHEVER WAY THE MOVE COMES, UP OR DOWN, EACH MOVE, SELECTION OR APPOINTMENT MUST BE SUBJECT TO THOSE AT THE NEXT LEVEL OF THE CHAIN OF COOPERATION.—I don't like to use the word "command" except where God is concerned, or His own ordained leadership and even God gives us a lot of choice!

49. THEREFORE, THE LOCAL COLONY SHEPHERDS SHOULD ALSO CHOOSE THEIR OWN DISTRICT SHEPHERD from amongst themselves if possible with the approval of the Regional Shepherd and his Regional council of District Shepherds.

50. OR, THE APPOINTMENT OF A DISTRICT SHEPHERD from above should only come from no higher than the Regional Shepherd and subject to the consent and approval and reception of the District Council itself‚ who are to be his co-labourers and fellow servants of the Lord.

51. LIKEWISE, EACH REGIONAL SHEPHERD SHOULD BE SELECTED BY THE REGIONAL COUNCIL OF DISTRICT SHEPHERDS from amongst their own number with the consent and approval of the Bishop and his Bishop's Council of Regional Shepherds.

52. IF IN LIEU OF A CHOICE FROM BELOW, IN CASES OF EMERGENCY AN APPOINTMENT MAY BE MADE from above, such as by the Bishop temporarily filling in a vacancy by the personal appointment of a Regional Shepherd, but this appointment cannot become permanently valid until approved and endorsed by his own Council of Regional Shepherds plus the consent of the District Shepherds below of that particular Region: Approved by both adjoining links or levels, above and below.

53. IN LIKE MANNER, THE BISHOPS THEMSELVES SHOULD BE SELECTED FROM THE RANKS OF THE REGIONAL SHEPHERDS or their own Council, should such vacancies occur‚ which they will in time‚ together with the higher approval and acceptance of the King's Council of Archbishops, so that all are agreed and can work together in full harmony and cooperation.

54. THIS IS A SAFETY-CHECK AND DOUBLE-CHECK PLAN to prevent the overriding of duly constituted authority from either above or below and to prevent arbitrary dictation from either direction, but to insure total cooperation and virtually unanimous agreement amongst all closely concerned in the selection of their own officers of both higher and lower ranks.

55. IN DUE TIME THE BISHOPS THEMSELVES SHOULD SELECT THEIR OWN ARCHBISHOP REPRESENTATIVES ON THE KING'S COUNCIL from amongst their own number so that the Archbishops shall be representative of these various Bishoprics as Emissaries to the King, with his consent and approval, and the King himself should make no appointments of the same without due consent of the Bishops themselves.

56. IN THIS WAY WE HAVE AN INTERLOCKING CHAIN OF COOPERATION AND VOLUNTARY SELF-GOVERNMENT where none can rule over the other without the due consent of those so governed and the agreement of those governing, so that all might work in harmony and cooperation, and each initiative, move, selection or appointment seem good to all and receive the approval of all those immediately concerned.

57. ANY ATTEMPT ON THE PART OF ANY LINK IN THIS CHAIN OF COOPERATION TO BYPASS its next link to a higher link or to bypass the next link to a lower link shall be considered a violation of authority and a breaking of the chain of cooperation, except under the most extreme emergency circumstances in which any link has the right of appeal to a higher link if dissatisfied with the results. Even so‚ no higher link can overrule the decision of a lower link without the lower link's reconsideration of the matter and its subsequent consent.

58. WHAT WE ARE TRYING TO AVOID HERE IS THE ARBITRARY APPOINTMENT OF LEADERS WITHOUT THE AGREEMENT AND CONSENT OF THOSE GOVERNED BY THAT LEADER, so that every selection or appointment must be approved by both those below and those above the level of that selection or appointment. In cases of possible disagreement all those concerned should get together and pray and ask the Lord to lead them into agreement so their decisions can be made with common consent.

SIMPLIFICATION OF REPORTING

59. THE STRUCTURE ALSO OF OUR MEANS OF COMMUNICATION between the various links of our organisation should also be modeled after this plan‚ with the reports of Local Colony Shepherds going directly to their District Shepherd for reading and supervision, although carbon copies may be sent also to the Regional Shepherd Bishop and International Office for the sake of making them available on their files for reference in case of need when any superior officer wishes to safety-check by spot-checking these reports to make sure those below are doing their jobs.

60. THEREFORE A DISTRICT SHEPHERD SHOULD ONLY HAVE TO READ HIS OWN LOCAL COLONY REPORTS and he should be the only one who has to read them, not some Ambassador way off in London and thereby by passing the entire chain of cooperation and negating its whole usefulness, structure and simplicity!

61. THEN IN TURN‚ THE REGIONAL SHEPHERD SHOULD ONLY HAVE TO READ HIS DISTRICT SHEPHERDS REPORTS and should be the only one who has to read them! Thereby, Bishops also should read only their Regional Shepherds reports and no one else should have to read them! Then the Bishop's Archbishops read their own Bishops' reports working for them and their Bishoprics in the Archbishop's office, and should be the only ones who have to read their reports and only their reports, not the reports of hundreds of local Colonies down the line!

62. THESE ARCHBISHOPS' REPORTS should then in turn be perused by the King's chief Executive Office, the Prime Minister and only by him and summaries in his report to the King.

63. FRANKLY, I PERSONALLY DON'T SEE WHY EACH BISHOPRIC NEEDS ONE WHOLE AMBASSADOR in the King's Court(International Office) just to read one Bishop's report and merely refer it to the Prime Minister, and I was not the one who set up this Ambassadorial system in the first place.

64. I PERSONALLY CANNOT SEE WHY THE BISHOPS CANNOT REPORT DIRECTLY TO THE PRIME MINISTER, which would only give him six or seven reports a week to read and to refer from them any problems to the King. Why we need a whole colony of Ambassadors in London for this purpose is beyond me!

65. PERSONALLY, I'M FOR THE SIMPLIFICATION OF REPORTING and the cutting down of reports and the reading of them as much as possible, and I started harping on this as far back as TSC five years ago when I myself found I could on longer read personally every week all the reports of only forty Colonies!

66. THIS IS WHY WE FIRST ESTABLISHED THIS CHAIN OF COOPERATION to simplify both our government and our communications and to particularly eliminate unnecessary reporting and the unnecessary reading of too many reports by too many people.

67. IF WE WOULD STICK TO THE CHAIN OF COOPERATION IT WOULD ELIMINATE MOST OF THIS DUPLICATION of effort and personnel and greatly simplify our whole procedures of both reporting and supervision of reports, so that our leadership would have more time for even more necessary activities and closer personal supervision of the activities of others.

68. EVEN THE DUPLICATION OF REPORTING BY CARBON COPIES to various superior levels would be unnecessary if we could be sure of no failures in the chain of cooperation. But these will have to be continued at present as a safety–check against the failures of some and to be sure that our International Office receives your statistics in time for immediate analysis and publication without the loss of time ensuing from the various steps below.

69. THE EXAMPLE OF THIS CHAIN OF MUTUAL TRUST AND COOPERATION SHOULD ACT AS A MODEL FOR ALL Departments to follow, including Childcare, Food Ministry, Colony Care, Foreign Ministry‚ Publications, etc. and as much duplication of reporting should be eliminated as possible.

MORE INDIGENOUS CHILDCARE DEPARTMENT

70. FOR EXAMPLE, WE DON'T SEE WHY EACH DISTRICT, REGION AND BISHOPRIC CANNOT CHOOSE ITS OWN CHILDCARE OFFICERS such as District, Regional and Bishopric Mothers, who will each peruse in turn the reports of each one's own bailiwick! Thus Deb's office of International Childcare itself should not have to be reading more than one report from each Bishopric, or about six or seven in all which would right there eliminate a whole slew of unnecessary secretaries who could be much better used elsewhere!

71. I AM CERTAINLY AGAINST EVERY LITTLE MOTHER IN THE WORLD HAVING TO REPORT PERSONALLY TO DEBORAH or call her long distance from half way around the world when each has an individual local problem! They'd do far better to call on their own Local Colony mother for advice or assistance, and then together on their local midwife, doctor, or immediate medical services for help, if need be rather than calling a mother ten thousand miles away who can't be of much help on long distance telephone!

72. THIS IS VIOLATING AND BY PASSING AND DESTROYING THE WHOLE PURPOSE OF OUR CHAIN OF COOPERATION AND COMMUNICATION and governmental structure, not to speak of adding more telephone traitors to the now already too long list!

UNAUTHORISED REPORTS.

73. I AM ALSO AGAINST THE SOLICITING OF REPORTS OF ANY KIND BY VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS directly from individual Colonies without the due consent and authorisation of all those involved along the chain of cooperation from bottom to top and many such reports and advisories and requests for such reports have been issued without any authorisation whatsoever from any responsible officer or group of officers, much less me!

74. I HEREBY SUGGEST THAT WE SUSPEND ALL FURTHER ADDITIONAL REPORTING WITHOUT DUE AUTHORISATION from all officers concerned. We're developing as much red tape as the System, and I hate it! I can't even understand all those reports myself or why they're needed or who authorised them, and I certainly don't know who has time to read them all, or if anybody is reading them!

75. SO I SUGGEST WE HAVE NO FURTHER REQUESTS FOR ADDITIONAL REPORTS UNTIL WE RE-EXAMINE THE ONES WE ALREADY HAVE and that no reports be required except those authorised and approved by the complete Council of Archbishops and Bishops and with the consent of those down the line who have to make them!

CHANGE TO SEMI–MONTHLY REPORTS, ETC.

76. IN FACT‚ I RECOMMEND THAT WE HEREBY SUSPEND ALL WEEKLY REPORTING AND CHANGE SUCH REPORTING TO BIWEEKLY reporting only, or once every two weeks and so cut everybody's work in half!

77. IN FACT. I'M GOING TO SET YOU THE EXAMPLE by insisting that the International Office and its executives and departments immediately suspend this flood of weekly reports that crams my mailbox in such a way it's enough to make the postman curse, and start sending me only the monthly reports and graphs that I have been begging and bugging for for so long-and monthly only please!—Including you Mr. Prime Minister! Thanks! What a relief!

78. BUT I HAVE A HARD TIME EVEN GETTING A SIMPLE MONTHLY GRAPH OR CHART from each of our various Departments so I can see their progress at a glance, although I've been pleading with them for these for years!

79. WHEN I WENT TO WRITE YOU MY OWN ANNUAL BIRTHDAY REPORT this month with an analysis of several years statistics, I found it difficult and even impossible in some cases to dig up the year's statistics on the simple one–year graphs that I've requested for so long!

AGAIN WARNS RF!

80. IF THIS LETTER DOESN'T DO THE TRICK, THE KING HIMSELF MAY HAVE TO TAKE A DIRECT HAND in phasing out some of your old-bottle leadership and replacing it with young new bottles who love the Lord's Letters and who have proved their faithfulness and borne good fruit through diligently following their guidelines, even if we have to retire some of our own flesh and blood and/or their in–laws and outlaws to other fields of more effective and needed endeavor!

81. FOR "FLESH AND BLOOD CANNOT INHERIT THE KINGDOM OF GOD BUT THEY THAT DO THE WILL OF THE FATHER! For if ye love me ye will keep my commandments.... He that keepeth my commandments, he it is that loveth me.... For how say ye unto me Lord, Lord‚ and do not the things that I ask?"

82. LET THE SO-CALLED ROYAL FAMILY BEWARE lest the natural branches be cut off because of disobedience and others grafted in for their faith and loyalty and proven ability to obey!

83. SOME, DESPITE MANY ADMONITIONS TO THE CONTRARY‚ ARE CONTINUING AS THEY WERE and thereby suffering the judgments of God Himself for their continued disobediences. Some of you have disobeyed me in so many ways, so many times and in so many areas they're almost without number!

84. SOME OF YOU ARE CONTINUING IN MARITAL OR SEXUAL UNIONS OR EVEN ESCAPADES WHICH ARE TOTALLY CONTRARY TO GOD'S LAWS of love and many admonitions in His Letters. Some are continuing to lean on the arm of flesh or Saul's armour of the System unequally yoked with ungodly unbelievers in business, and leaning on lawyers instead of the Lord!

85. SOME OF YOU HAVE INSISTED ON DOING THINGS YOUR OWN WAY INSTEAD OF GOD'S WAY regarding our bands and music and some of you have turned totally to the physician instead of to the Lord in your afflictions instead of obeying God, and are thereby suffering the consequences. It is no wonder you are having so much trouble and have found no housing or are being persecuted with investigations!

86. YOU 'RE LEANING MORE ON YOUR CARNAL KNOWLEDGE AND MAN'S WISDOM AND UNSPIRITUAL CO-WORKERS INSTEAD OF THE LORD! We will never get anywhere by being dishonest and telling lies, as some of you did on a recent TV show and as some of you are still suggesting we do to gain certain governmental recognition!

87. ANYBODY WHO'S EVER HEARD THE NAME OF THE CHILDREN OF GOD KNOWS WHO WE ARE and what we are and what we're like and what we do‚ and you're never gonna kid'em into believing you're some kind of a school no matter how long your lists of subjects and curricula!

88. I BELIEVE YOU'D GET A LOT FURTHER WITH THEM BY JUST BEING HONEST with them!—And if that doesn't do the trick, since when have we thrived on governmental permissions and recognitions?

89. WE HAVE INVADED MOST PLACES SECRETLY AND THEN COME OUT IN THE OPEN as occupancy and possession is nine-tenths of the law, and it's a lot harder to throw you out than to prevent you from entering!

90. QUIT TRYING TO KID'EM! THEY KNOW WHO YOU ARE!—And they'll admire you more for being honest even if they're your honest enemies!—And God will bless you for it!

Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family